No Mercy: For Lorne Hope

$36,435

735

No Mercy follows the story of four main
characters, Elliot, Ray, Belle, and Orion, as they work to cleanse the forest
and restore balance. Use their different weapons and powers to crush anything
that stands in your way, and explore the surrounding levels for hidden secrets.
Bursting with vibrant art and interlocking character arcs, No Mercy draws both
you and the characters deeper into the heart of a forest under siege.

Your only hope lies in each other, but
everyone has something valuable to lose. In a story of love, trust, and a fourth wall-breaking bird person named Kevin, you must work together to save the
forest, your friends, or at the very least, your life.

No Mercy is a brawler built around the lives of strangers who find themselves in the forest as an ancient darkness, the Corruption, breaks free. It plays like Castle Crashers mixed with the discoverable narrative of games like Journey, Braid, and The Stanley Parable. We're working on a Steam Release for PC and Mac, with Act I being released in Summer 2017, Act II in fourth quarter 2017, and Act III in March 2018. We would like to release the game as one, complete story, so if we exceed our funding goal, that will allow us to work full time on No Mercy and accelerate our development timeline to release the game more quickly!

Features:

BLOODSHED: Hack and slash your way through slugs, spirits, and corrupted golems that are destroying the forest. We named the game No Mercy for a reason. We expect you to bring your A-game or button mash your way through the forest to defeat the Corruption. Once you’ve beaten the game the first time, levels will unlock, and you’ll be able to play as any character you want, fighting until your heart’s content.

MULTIPLAYER: Relatively self-explanatory, but No Mercy has multiplayer! Play alone or with a friend (or hundreds of your closest friends on Twitch… we won’t complain). Check out the demo for a romping good couch co-op time!

ART: Every great battle is commemorated in a stunning painting. Get lost in the ever-shifting, colorful art of No Mercy: the painting that pays tribute to your quest to save the forest. The gestural strokes, expressive colors, and 2D backgrounds are designed for a visually expressive experience.

HIDDEN STORY: While destroying every enemy you can find, remember to stop and explore the vast forest around you. Eons of time have passed through those branches, and terrible secrets about the woods, the Corruption, and even your friends could be hidden amidst them. We never want story to break the flow of gameplay, so it has been integrated into the surrounding levels as hidden areas, context clues, and dialogue instead of long cutscenes.

CHARACTERS: Alternate through four playable characters in levels designed to gradually reveal more about their wants, needs, and (occasionally tragic) backstories. Each character has a unique fighting style that can be combined to add new challenges and depth to levels.

ACCESSIBILITY: MVG has been working with The Able Gamers Charity to ensure that our game is accessible for those with disabilities. Our goal is to create a game that respectfully represents the disabled community, as two of our main characters, Elliot and Orion, live with disabilities. Accessibility and representation are important beyond measure, so we’re working to make sure we do it right.

Nature thrives
on balance: the ebb and flow of the tides, life and death, day and night, order
and chaos. The Shrine Keepers are entrusted with maintaining this balance and
tending to the veil between what we know and what we wish we didn’t. The forest they protect has always known
Corruption, trickling like veins through the trees, but its true chaos was
sealed away long ago. That is, until a golem is broken and releases the
Corruption into the world. As it gushes out from behind the broken seal, the
world is left to deal with an ancient, all-consuming chaos that has been
building for hundreds of years.

Our story
begins with Elliot as he’s racing to find his closest companion, Lorne, who was
taken by the Corruption. His luck takes a turn for the worse when a corrupted
golem tries to kill him, and the lost battle leaves him with only one arm and
much less blood than when he began. As he phases in and out of consciousness, a
stranger stops to heal his wounds and fashion him a new arm, albeit hastily,
before moving deeper into the woods. As Elliot regains consciousness, he wakes
with a renewed passion to find Lorne and to discover the person that replaced
his arm, instilled it with magic, and saved his life.

Allies like
Ray, Belle, and Orion will join his quest, though their motives are their own,
and together they'll work to defeat the Corruption. Belle's training as a
Shrine Keeper will be instrumental in purifying each shrine and weakening the looming
foe. Though each character brings new talents to the table, they also bring baggage.
It doesn't take long for questions to arise. Why was Elliot so deep in the forest?
Why was Lorne taken? Why does a bird person in a sweater keep following the group
and making bad jokes?

Before long, our heroes will learn that the corruption wasn't the only secret hiding in these woods.

We’ve been in the game industry for 6 years, but between
everyone on the team, we’ve been
making games for many more years than that (plus a few months if you include
Intern Brian). Serving as the focal point for
the game industry in Ohio, Multivarious is working to make Columbus the next hotspot for video game development and to foster a growing community of creative and innovative developers. In just a few short years, our community has grown to over 1,100 members from organizations like The Central Ohio Gamedev Group, affectionately known as COGG, The Able Gamers Charity, and development studios scattered all over the Midwest. We also make games, but hopefully that
was implied.

Multivarious keeps the lights on by working with companies all over the world to realize their visions. We develop tons of apps, games, and interactive experiences for some of the worlds largest organizations. Working with your clients and partners is a great way for us to learn, and be able to eat. But our true passion is in making our own games and experiences. Your support on Kickstarter helps us get the funds needed to full devote our development time on No Mercy, and let our creativity flow... everywhere.

That community of love and
support has gotten us this far, and we’re asking more of you to join us. We’ve
chosen Kickstarter in the hopes that we can reach a broader audience, receive
enough support that we can devote all of our energy to development, and
hopefully prove to the world that there’s more than just corn in Ohio.

Thank you for being awesome

- MVG

For a long time, we’ve balanced client work as a means of income, running GDEX: one of the largest game dev expos in the Midwest, trying to build a community for developers, and actually making our own games. It keeps the lights on, but it takes much longer to make the games we want with out energy divided between so many things. We’ve spent a year of solid development meticulously crafting our story, game mechanics, and art, and we’ve reached a point where No Mercy is all we want to focus on. If we cut out everything other than game development, we are going to need a way to pay our employees.

The $30,000 is going to help us with development while the team offsets the remaining costs with our normal consulting and external development work. Any money above the $30,000 will allow us to allocate more of our time towards No Mercy without relying on our development services to provide our income. Ultimately, the game includes 4 playable characters, a deep funny while serious story, and wide variety of interesting levels. Full funding of our goal will be allocated as follows:

We estimate that the total remaining costs to complete this project would be around $180,000 ($225,000 on Kickstarter with fees and rewards)

We have already laid the groundwork. The game mechanics, AIs, and multiplayer are all there. Now we just need to model out some characters, polish our story, and get all of it to you. Let’s do this.

In other news, our stretch goals have been announced! Now that we're so close to our goal, we figured we should spice it up a bit to show you all what happens once we surpass our goal.

Everyone loves charts, right? Either way, this chart breaks down which items make up each reward tier to help you decide how much to pledge.

***The VIP Invite and Escape Room rewards do not include the price of travel. If you are unable to travel but still want to donate at that tier, we can arrange a private Google hangout, stream, or metaphysical dream experience.

Extra Game Add-On: Add $8 to any tier and we'll add in an extra copy of the game.

Achievement System

We love being gamers, and free stuff, so we wanted to implement a system that rewards all of our backers as the Kickstarter continues. Every time we reach a new milestone listed below, No Mercy will get experience points that will unlock bonuses for backers. Spread the word to help push No Mercy even further!

***Baby companion is not an actual baby, but our office dog who is named Baby. Unless you want a large, cool baby to follow you around the game. Is that what you want? I mean.. okay. I guess we can do that if that convinces you to donate. Please donate.

Risks and challenges

Game development is a cruel mistress, and there is always risk in this industry. However, Multivarious is a full time game and app development studio that has developed our own title, Hatch-It for iOS and Android, and numerous projects for clients ranging from Mastercard, Nationwide Children's Hospital, OSU Medical Center, and many more.

Beyond our own experience, we have a brilliant community of developers we’ve nurtured in the Midwest that are available to help us take development over the finish line when ready.

It costs a lot of money to make a game, and we have erred on the lower side of what is needed for this game. Anything past our funding goal will allow us to work full time on No Mercy without having to rely on our client work.

Our team is ready to face whatever struggles may arise, and we will show them No Mercy. This is a game we want to make and a story we believe in and we have a track record of releasing projects over the past six years. Thank you for your support, patience, and trust. We’re in this for the long haul.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $35 or more
About $35

Fame, Glory, and Fowl Poetry

Everything from War and Piece + your name emblazoned in the credits for all to see, a soundtrack, and a digital art book full of concept art and peppered with an eclectic collection of poems drafted by our resident bird person.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $75 or more
About $75

Let's Get Physical

Fame, Glory, and Fowl Poetry + rewards you can hold: an autographed art book, buttons, stickers, a thank you card, and a pack of trading cards to keep to yourself and never trade because they are too precious.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $75 or more
About $75

Let's Get Physical (Columbus Local)

Fame, Glory, and Fowl Poetry + rewards you can hold: an autographed art book, buttons, stickers, a thank you card, and a pack of trading cards to keep to yourself and never trade because they are too precious. (This is for local residents who can pick up their collections)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $100 or more
About $100

Little Petshop of Horrors

Let’s Get Physical + a set of Kickstarter Exclusive companions in-game who will follow you around, look adorable, and be of absolutely zero help in battle. They’re like normal pets except you don’t have the feed them.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $200 or more
About $200

Heart of the Cards

Let’s Get Physical + Work with our talented artist to design one card from the full set of trading cards and get credit for it. I hope you like both cards and hearts. Get ready to put your heart into one. You can take that as literally as you like.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $250 or more
About $250

Limited Edition - Elliot Costume Design

Let's Get Physical + an invite to the No Mercy launch party (travel not included), and the opportunity to work with MVG to design the alternative costume for Elliot, to be released in the "Kickstarter Special Edition Bonus Character Costume Pack"

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $250 or more
About $250

Limited Edition - Ray Costume Design

Let's Get Physical + an invite to the No Mercy launch party (travel not included), and the opportunity to work with MVG to design the alternative costume for Ray, to be released in the "Kickstarter Special Edition Bonus Character Costume Pack"

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $250 or more
About $250

Limited Edition - Orion Costume Design

Let's Get Physical + an invite to the No Mercy launch party (travel not included), and the opportunity to work with MVG to design the alternative costume for Orion, to be released in the "Kickstarter Special Edition Bonus Character Costume Pack"

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $250 or more
About $250

Limited Edition - Belle Costume Design

Let's Get Physical + an invite to the No Mercy launch party (travel not included), and the opportunity to work with MVG to design the alternative costume for Belle, to be released in the "Kickstarter Special Edition Bonus Character Costume Pack"

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $250 or more
About $250

Limited Edition - Elowyn Costume Design

Let's Get Physical + an invite to the No Mercy launch party (travel not included), and the opportunity to work with MVG to design the alternative costume for Elowyn, to be released in the "Kickstarter Special Edition Bonus Character Costume Pack"

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $250 or more
About $250

Limited Edition - Kevin Costume Design

Let's Get Physical + an invite to the No Mercy launch party (travel not included), and the opportunity to work with MVG to design the alternative costume for Kevin, to be released in the "Kickstarter Special Edition Bonus Character Costume Pack"

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $500 or more
About $500

Spirit of Giving

For the Record, with a vinyl rumored to say "buy our game" when played backwards + a VIP invite to our Launch Party, a complete set of trading cards, our undying gratitude, and a piece of original art signed by our artist in blood (but not necessarily her own)!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $500 or more
About $500

Spirit of Giving (Columbus Local)

For the Record, with a vinyl rumored to say "buy our game" when played backwards + a VIP invite to our Launch Party, a complete set of trading cards, our undying gratitude, and a piece of original art signed by our artist in blood (but not necessarily her own)! (This is for local residents who can pick up their collections)